Sticks and stones As a guy who grew up with an unusual name which can be scoffed at, confused, inverted, changed at the speaker’s whim, easily rhymed with derogatory terms, needs repeating several times on the phone, out-right refused by listeners because it’s different, gotten wrong by peers, teachers, coaches, people taking food orders, etc. I feel I can speak from a place of experience to modern parents about their penchant for creative names. As my older brother tells it,… Read more

After nearly 11 years in office,  Jolene Koester announced Monday that she will retire from her position as CSUN president by the end of 2011. Her announcement listed highlights of achievements during her time in office including increased graduation rates, successful fundraising campaigns, a policy of transparency in governance of the university and the grand opening of the VPAC, which placed CSUN firmly on the map as a cultural force in the area. In an announcement to the CSUN community… Read more

Rage Last week, a man in Seattle was arrested for firing his pistol after another car cut him off in traffic and two landscapers in Orange, Connecticut mixed it up until one was injured by a weed eater. While I think a weed eater in a fight is pretty awesome, this is no way to make friends. But don’t we all have bloody thoughts? When I was 6, I was struggling to learn to ride a bicycle and I was… Read more

Freedom from speech This story required little from me, I just wanted to pass it along because it’s been a long time coming. A Louisiana website tells the tale of a Mississippi town standing up to a Kansas nuisance: The body of USMC Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers returned from Afghanistan to his hometown of Brandon, Mississippi to be laid to rest at a funeral attended by hundreds, maybe thousands of townsfolk. The significance lies with a group that made the… Read more

Men do work harder… screw it, what’s on TV? Tuesday was Equal Pay Day, an occasion birthed by feminists to shout at leaders about the discrepancy in pay between men and women for equal work. In an article on the same day, safely androgynously-named writer for the Wall Street Journal, Carrie Lukas, outed this fabrication, saying women don’t want to work as hard as men anyway. Amen, brother(?) Just putting this piece together each week really cuts into my video… Read more

I’m every woman A music-loving man in Folkestone, England was first served a noise abatement notice and then actually had cops kick down his door because he wouldn’t stop blasting Whitney Houston and 50 Cent. He was so obnoxious with his “tiny collection of CDs” the warrant is still open and cops can go back, kick down however many doors they have to and take anything else he buys in perpetuity. Even if it’s something awesome like Flynt Flossy. Maybe… Read more

Flying deathtrap The FAA says you have a choice:  You can live in the past like your grandmother and fly in planes that feature emergency oxygen tanks in lavatories, though they could be used as bombs by extremists to take down airplanes. Or you can take the jaunty new, extreme sport approach to flying: No oxygen in lavatories, gambling that you may one day feel the rush of rapid decompression and frantically do the penguin down the aisle of a… Read more

Not just for toppling dictators anymore Facebook has been fingered by some divorce attorneys as a prime suspect for failed relationships in the U.S., with some even going so far as to demand access to a client’s Facebook page before any real legal action takes place. It makes sense, a password-protected, private flirting realm has an undeniable allure. Who hasn’t creeped a person or two on Facebook but run headlong into stupid privacy settings so you can’t look at their photos… Read more

SCOTUS: Corporations do not have personal privacy rights The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling on Tuesday that said the FCC could not release records of its investigation into AT&T. Chief Justice John Roberts said the word “personal” normally refers to individuals and AT&T failed to connect the word to corporations.  Therefore, federal government records concerning corporations will be available to the public, under the Freedom of Information Act. So sorry it had to come to this, big… Read more